Oprah.com: Interview With Pastor Joel Hunter

Environmental journalist Simran Sethi interviews Pastor Joel Hunter about the ways the green movement and religion intersect—and why it should be such a natural fit.

A Call for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Pastor Hunter talks to Fox 35 Orlando.

Conservative National Leaders Urge Action on Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Respond to Presidential Address

***Press and Public Conference Call: Wednesday, July 7 at 2 p.m. EDT***

**Call-in number: 913-643-4201 Conference Code: 7436701**

MIAMI, FLA. — Conservatives for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CFCIR) will take its national press conference call “on the road” to Miami, Fla. This will be CFCIR’s sixth call with some of the country’s most influential conservative leaders, updating the broader coalition on the ongoing efforts to pass immigration reform.

On July 1, President Obama answered the call of many prominent conservative leaders to address the nation on the need for comprehensive immigration reform. Several of these influential leaders will be on our call and will give their reaction to the President's speech. At the end of the call, press and callers will be able to ask questions from our speakers.

This conference call will feature:

Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

Rev. Guillermo Maldonado, Senior Pastor of El Rey Jesus

Dr. Joel Hunter, Senior Pastor, Northland, A Church Distributed

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President, The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC)

Pastor Pablo Lago, Senior Pastor and Founder, La Roca Firme Brethren in Christ Church

Noel Castellanos, CEO, Christian Community Development Association

Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL)

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)

Juan Hernandez, Founder of Conservatives for CIR, Moderator of Call

This event will be open to the public and press, with a question and answer session at the end.

If you are in the area, please come to the Miami World Relief Office at 1:30 p.m. EDT for refreshments and fellowship.

WHEN: Wednesday, July 7 at 2 p.m. EDT

WHERE: Miami World Relief Office, 2150 SW 8th St., 2nd Floor, Miami, Fla. 33135

QUESTIONS:

Juan Hernandez

info@ConservativesForCIR.com

817-676-4090

***Press and Public Conference Call: Wednesday, July 7 at 2 p.m. EDT***

**Call-in number: 913-643-4201 Conference Code: 7436701**

MIAMI, FLA. — Conservatives for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CFCIR) will take its national press conference call “on the road” to Miami, Fla. This will be CFCIR’s sixth call with some of the country’s most influential conservative leaders, updating the broader coalition on the ongoing efforts to pass immigration reform.

On July 1, President Obama answered the call of many prominent conservative leaders to address the nation on the need for comprehensive immigration reform. Several of these influential leaders will be on our call and will give their reaction to the President's speech. At the end of the call, press and callers will be able to ask questions from our speakers.

This conference call will feature:

Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

Rev. Guillermo Maldonado, Senior Pastor of El Rey Jesus

Dr. Joel Hunter, Senior Pastor, Northland, A Church Distributed

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President, The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC)

Pastor Pablo Lago, Senior Pastor and Founder, La Roca Firme Brethren in Christ Church

Noel Castellanos, CEO, Christian Community Development Association

Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL)

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)

Juan Hernandez, Founder of Conservatives for CIR, Moderator of Call

This event will be open to the public and press, with a question and answer session at the end.

If you are in the area, please come to the Miami World Relief Office at 1:30 p.m. EDT for refreshments and fellowship.

WHEN: Wednesday, July 7 at 2 p.m. EDT

WHERE: Miami World Relief Office, 2150 SW 8th St., 2nd Floor, Miami, Fla. 33135

QUESTIONS:

Juan Hernandez

info@ConservativesForCIR.com

817-676-4090

Seasoned Pastors Reveal Mistakes, Regrets in Ministry

Seasoned Pastors Reveal Mistakes, Regrets in Ministry

Over 40 "sages" offered younger leaders some insight as to what they would do differently in ministry if given the chance to do it over.

Fri, May. 21, 2010 Posted: 11:02 AM EDT

Over 40 "sages" offered younger leaders some insight as to what they would do differently in ministry if given the chance to do it over.

Some of the pieces of wisdom given Wednesday during a four-hour online event include: get a mentor, hire people who are smarter than you, and don't try to meet everyone's needs.

"If I did this one thing, I think it would have put me years ahead of where I am and the church years ahead," said Cal Jernigan, senior pastor of Central Christian Church in the Phoenix metropolitan area. "I wish I would have gotten a mentor."

Though Jernigan read plenty of books and attended conferences, he realized he was at a huge disadvantage by not having someone regularly speak into his life and even correct him if necessary.

He was fearful that if he approached a seasoned leader to spend time with him and teach him, he would be rejected.

"I made the mistake of assuming the answer would be 'no,'" he said during the "Sage" online event. "It's kind of like the kid at the junior high dance who just stand on the sidelines, just sure if you risk it they'd say 'no.'"

The multi-site church pastor assured younger leaders and those just starting out in ministry that in large part, pastors are more than willing to serve as mentors.

"Sage" was produced by the Leadership Network and was the third event of its kind in a series that began last fall. It featured some well-known and some less familiar pastors and ministry leaders, all of whom submitted brief pre-recorded videos of themselves talking about what they would do differently if they could go back or what they've learned in the decades that they've been serving God. Together, the speakers have more than 1,000 years of ministry experience.

Organizers of the event said they hope the answers given would save younger leaders years of frustration.

"If you've been involved in ministry for more than five minutes, I'm sure that there's something you would have done differently," said "Sage" producer Todd Rhoades. "Ministry is one of the hardest jobs in the world. Because of the extreme demands of ministry, few leaders are able to make it twenty, thirty, or forty-plus years in our vocation. Those who do have an incredible amount of wisdom to share."

Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed, in Orlando, Fla., offered a few minutes of advice on what could help others at the start of ministry.

"Make sure you always hire people who are smarter than you are because if you don't do that, all the work will come back to you," he said.

The tendency for people who are just starting out in ministry is to feel as if they have to be in control of everything or know everything that's going on, Hunter noted.

But he reminded young leaders, "This is what Christ said: 'I will build my church.' You don't have to build the church. Christ will build his church. And if you know everything that's going on in your ministry that means your ministry can only grow as large as your brain is."

Dennis Keating, pastor at Emmanuel Faith Community Church in Escondido, Calif., learned during his years in ministry that he can't play father to the world.

Every day, he would try to meet everyone's needs and work himself to exhaustion. He constantly felt guilty and depressed and his gages were soon pegged on empty.

He realized he had to begin to understand his limitations.

Keating now lives on the motto: "Just because the ministry calls doesn't mean that God calls."

Leadership Network, established in 1984, fosters church innovation and growth through strategies, programs, tools and resources consistent with its mission to identify, connect and help high-capacity Christian leaders multiply their impact.

Audrey Barrick

Christian Post Reporter

Over 40 "sages" offered younger leaders some insight as to what they would do differently in ministry if given the chance to do it over.

Some of the pieces of wisdom given Wednesday during a four-hour online event include: get a mentor, hire people who are smarter than you, and don't try to meet everyone's needs.

"If I did this one thing, I think it would have put me years ahead of where I am and the church years ahead," said Cal Jernigan, senior pastor of Central Christian Church in the Phoenix metropolitan area. "I wish I would have gotten a mentor."

Though Jernigan read plenty of books and attended conferences, he realized he was at a huge disadvantage by not having someone regularly speak into his life and even correct him if necessary.

He was fearful that if he approached a seasoned leader to spend time with him and teach him, he would be rejected.

"I made the mistake of assuming the answer would be 'no,'" he said during the "Sage" online event. "It's kind of like the kid at the junior high dance who just stand on the sidelines, just sure if you risk it they'd say 'no.'"

The multi-site church pastor assured younger leaders and those just starting out in ministry that in large part, pastors are more than willing to serve as mentors.

"Sage" was produced by the Leadership Network and was the third event of its kind in a series that began last fall. It featured some well-known and some less familiar pastors and ministry leaders, all of whom submitted brief pre-recorded videos of themselves talking about what they would do differently if they could go back or what they've learned in the decades that they've been serving God. Together, the speakers have more than 1,000 years of ministry experience.

Organizers of the event said they hope the answers given would save younger leaders years of frustration.

"If you've been involved in ministry for more than five minutes, I'm sure that there's something you would have done differently," said "Sage" producer Todd Rhoades. "Ministry is one of the hardest jobs in the world. Because of the extreme demands of ministry, few leaders are able to make it twenty, thirty, or forty-plus years in our vocation. Those who do have an incredible amount of wisdom to share."

Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed, in Orlando, Fla., offered a few minutes of advice on what could help others at the start of ministry.

"Make sure you always hire people who are smarter than you are because if you don't do that, all the work will come back to you," he said.

The tendency for people who are just starting out in ministry is to feel as if they have to be in control of everything or know everything that's going on, Hunter noted.

But he reminded young leaders, "This is what Christ said: 'I will build my church.' You don't have to build the church. Christ will build his church. And if you know everything that's going on in your ministry that means your ministry can only grow as large as your brain is."

Dennis Keating, pastor at Emmanuel Faith Community Church in Escondido, Calif., learned during his years in ministry that he can't play father to the world.

Every day, he would try to meet everyone's needs and work himself to exhaustion. He constantly felt guilty and depressed and his gages were soon pegged on empty.

He realized he had to begin to understand his limitations.

Keating now lives on the motto: "Just because the ministry calls doesn't mean that God calls."

Leadership Network, established in 1984, fosters church innovation and growth through strategies, programs, tools and resources consistent with its mission to identify, connect and help high-capacity Christian leaders multiply their impact.

Audrey Barrick, Christian Post Reporter

FIND THE ARTICLE AT: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100521/seasoned-pastors-reveal-mistakes-regrets-in-ministry/index.html

Dems put faith in religious right to help boost party agenda

By Alexander Bolton - 05/17/10 07:13 PM ET

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) have turned to evangelical Christians in a last-ditch effort to move immigration reform and climate change legislation.

Democrats are making a direct appeal to the GOP base by turning to evangelical Christian and other religious leaders, and there’s some evidence that the talks could be fruitful.

“We’re encouraging Southern Baptists to reach out to senators and congressmen to encourage Democrats and Republicans to quit playing politics and deal with immigration reform in a fair way,” said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

“The political will to deport 12 million people isn’t there,” he said, referring to the estimated number of illegal immigrants in the nation.

The effort comes after Schumer and Kerry spent months negotiating with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to build GOP support for two of President Barack Obama’s top initiatives.

Despite those talks, both were forced to unveil legislative proposals in the last few weeks without any Republican co-sponsors.

Republican leaders have told their colleagues not to sign on to any Democratic proposals before clearing it with the entire GOP conference, but some of the country’s staunchest conservatives want to see action in Washington on climate change and immigration reform.

Schumer called Land last week to ask if he could join a conference call with evangelical leaders on immigration reform, according to Land.

“He asked if he could have three minutes to be part of the conference call,” Land said, referring to a call leaders held last week to promote a pro-immigration reform newspaper ad taken out by the National Association of Evangelicals.

The ad called on Congress to pass bipartisan immigration reform that included several principles, such as respecting “the God-given dignity of every person”; respecting the rule of law; guaranteeing secure national borders; and establishing a path toward legal status or citizenship for those who qualify and wish to become residents.

White Southern Baptists are considered among the most conservative voters of the electorate. And with more than 16 million members, the Southern Baptist Convention is a powerful force in Republican politics.

Kerry has also reached out to evangelical leaders to spur Republicans to support his 1,000-page climate bill.

“It’s been unusual, but these are what we see as two very moral issues that have a lot of implications for a lot of families and definitely affect the vulnerable,” said Dr. Joel Hunter, pastor of Northland, a mega-church in central Florida.

Hunter, a Republican-turned-independent who delivered the closing prayer at the 2008 Democratic convention, said Kerry approached him to build bipartisan support for the bill.

“They came to me,” said Hunter. “This has been a more recent pattern with the Democrats — they’re really broadening and including the voice of faith communities to build a consensus on these moral and biblical issues.”

Democrats hope evangelicals can persuade Republicans such as Graham and Sens. Richard Lugar (Ind.) and Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) to support an energy and climate bill.

Some evangelicals are more allied with the GOP than others, and some don’t see eye to eye on all the issues.

Land and Hunter, for example, agree on the need to pass immigration reform, but Land does not support a proposal to limit carbon emissions. Still, while Land has not endorsed Schumer’s proposal, political observers are surprised they’re even working together.

“It’s very surprising,” said Hunter. “These are times of interesting coalitions.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has made subtle appeals to faith-driven voters by invoking the language of evangelical leaders when calling for passage of climate change legislation.

“I think it is essential to the health of our children that we reduce emissions in the air,” Pelosi said at a recent press conference. “And for those of us who believe — and I think most of us do — that this is God’s creation, we have a moral responsibility to preserve his creation.”

Land said he has noticed Pelosi invoking God’s name more often.

“I’m all for it,” he said.

The Rev. Jim Ball of the Evangelical Environmental Network said addressing climate change follows the teachings of Jesus to minister to the poor.

“We call being an environmentalist creation care,” said Ball. “God is the creator and we’re called to steward or take care of his creation. When it comes to the issue of climate change, it’s primarily about the poor, because the poor are going to be impacted the hardest.”

Burns Strider, a former aide to Pelosi, has kept in touch with evangelical and Christian groups around the country, such as the Christian Coalition of Alabama.

Randy Brinson, head of Alabama’s Christian Coalition, said he talks regularly with Strider, who is trying to build support for climate legislation.

Brinson said his group does not support the cap-and-trade proposal passed last year by the House but could get behind a modified plan.

“We’re trying to be reasonable arbiters,” he said. “We’re trying to bring the two extremes to a more reasonable position.”

Democrats have made sporadic efforts to reach out to evangelical Christians over the years.

Those efforts became more serious when former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean took over as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2005.

Some skeptics speculate that Democrats turn to evangelical voters when their political fortunes drop, but Dean dismissed that theory.

He said the new efforts by Schumer and Kerry are part of the party’s evolving relationship with Christian voters.

Dean said he was essentially forced to hold clandestine meetings with Land and other evangelical leaders when he first took over at the DNC.

“We would have to meet at hotels and arrive and leave at different times,” Dean said. “It’s not like it was really clandestine, but they wouldn’t come to the DNC. We would have to go to Capitol Hill Suites and did have to agree to come and go five minutes apart from each other.”

FIND THIS ARTICLE AT: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/98289-dems-put-faith-in-religious-right-to-help-boost-agenda

Let There Be Light

IPL National Conference Keynote — Rev. Joel Hunter from Interfaith Power & Light on Vimeo.

Pastor Hunter gives the keynote speech at the Interfaith Power and Light National Conference in Washington, DC, May 3, 2010.

American Power Act Announcement

Dr. Joel C. Hunter stands with government officials and power company executives in support of The American Power Act, which seeks to reduce carbon emissions at the country’s biggest polluters including power plants, heavy industry and transportation.

DR. HUNTER'S COMMENTS AT THE ANNOUNCEMENT (37 minutes in):
"Added to the obvious practical benefits of this package is its moral aspect. It is never too early or too late to do the right thing. All religions and non-believers alike have a sense that being a good steward of the earth and atmosphere is the right thing to do. The Bible, the Koran, the Vedas of the Eastern traditions all say that to protect the earth is to honor God. In Genesis 2:15, God orders us to cultivate the earth and keep it. That means we have to balance protection with production. We are not just interested in fighting pollution but poverty as well, 'green' should mean a growing economy as well as healthy environment.

"And the time for action is now. It is the business of those with a political perspective to calculate success, but legislative success is not the standard for moral action. I don't want to be standing before God on Judgement Day saying, 'I would have worked to protect the earth and the poor but I didn't think we had the votes.' It's never too early or too late to do the right thing."

Should We Have a National Day of Prayer?

Dr. Joel C. Hunter and Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation discuss this issue on WNYC's (NPR) The Takeaway.

Is God's wrath at work in natural disasters?

What do homosexuality, the health-care overhaul and British advertising standards all have in common? They're all things that have ticked God off, some religious leaders say, and he's venting his frustration with the angry fires of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano.

Moscow's Interfax newswire reported that the Association of (Russian) Orthodox Experts called the April 14 eruption -- whose gigantic cloud of ash grounded transatlantic flights for more than a week -- a response to gay rights in Europe and Iceland's tolerance of "neo-paganism." Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh said God was angry over health-care legislation. San Antonio megachurch pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, said God was unleashing his wrath on Britain for deciding that Israeli tourism ads featured parts of the disputed Palestinian territories, not Israel.

The eruption is one in a long line of natural events that some religious leaders have attributed to divine judgment. In short, they say that God is using nature to channel his displeasure with human beings -- both the sinners and those who tolerate them -- and that we had better shape up.

It's an impulse that goes back thousands of years and still thrives among people who are generally skeptical of science and who seek divine explanations for natural calamities. Some examples:

-- Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi recently told his Shiite Muslim followers that immodestly dressed and promiscuous women are to blame for earthquakes.

-- In February, Rabbi Yehuda Levin of the Rabbinical Alliance of America warned that allowing gays to serve openly in the military could cause natural disasters to strike America. "The practice of homosexuality is a spiritual cause of earthquakes," he said.

-- Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson blamed the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti on a pact between the devil and the Haitians who rebelled against French rule in the 18th century.

-- Robertson and Hagee blamed Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans' debauchery and immorality.

-- Malaysian Muslim cleric Azizan Abdul Razak said the 2004 South Asian tsunami was a message from God that "He created the world and can destroy the world," and Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar said it was "an expression of God's great ire with the world."

So what is it about nature's fury that attracts theological interpretation? For many religious leaders, scholars say, it's an opportunity to win new believers.

"Natural disasters are disruptive. When there's a disruption, people's worldviews are shaken and need to be repaired," said Steve Friesen, a biblical studies professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

"Natural disasters are a prime time to repair people's worldviews. . . . It's a long-running theme in American culture that God works to bring people into changing their worldview," Friesen said.

Who accepts these proclamations and who doesn't often depends on how a believer views God: benevolent, wrathful, active, passive or maybe something less defined, like a cosmic force.

"This stuff attracts people with a strong authoritarian image of God and who believe that He -- it's almost always a 'He' -- does in fact punish people who do not follow his rules," said Wade Clark Roof, professor of American religion at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Another common thread among people who link disaster to divine judgment is that they tend to consider disasters as confirmation of already-held beliefs.

"They already think God is working in certain ways, and disasters become an example of that," said Friesen, pointing to Hagee as an example. "There's no logical connection [between Britain's ad policy and the volcano], but because he is already convinced that God works to protect Israel, he believes that God made the volcano erupt to punish Britain."

People who make such pronouncements are also claiming special power or authority, experts said. "They are claiming special knowledge of how God works in the world and why he does what he's doing," Friesen said.

Many religious leaders reject the idea that disaster is linked to divine judgment.

"It's faulty theology. People take the personal consequences of sin, which are real, and project them onto natural disaster. That's where things break down," said Joel Hunter, a board member of the National Association of Evangelicals and a megachurch pastor in suburban Orlando.

"Speculating that disaster happens because sin has reached a certain level puts God in a really bad light," said Rabbi Michael Lerner, president of the Network of Spiritual Progressives. "You start blaming the victims for a process that is a result of something that they had nothing to do with," he said.

Although Lerner flatly rejects linking specific behaviors to specific disasters, he does believe that human actions can cause natural calamities. In short, global warming isn't a God-sent portent of the fires of hell, but rather a very natural reaction to human action.

"God has communicated to us that there is a connection between the physical survival of the planet and whether we follow the command to be good stewards of the planet," Lerner said. "We have to stop exploiting the Earth and start treating it as sacred."

-- Religion News Service

By omar sacirbey | Saturday, May 1, 2010

FIND THIS ARTICLE AT: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/30/AR2010043002116.html

Pastor: God Communicates through Word and Nature

God communicates with people through the written word and through nature, said a Florida megachurch pastor on the eve of Earth Day.

Pastor Joel Hunter of Northland, a Church Distributed, in Longwood, Fla., cited Romans 1:20 Wednesday evening at the Hope for Creation event. He said like the Bible verse, which says God’s invisible qualities can be seen through creation, God allows people to understand Him through nature.

“The word of God is really both nature and Scripture but in Scripture it commands us to do exactly what we are doing tonight, and that is to guard God’s creation,” said Hunter, who co-hosted the Hope for Creation event with Dr. Matthew Sleeth, the founder of Blessed Earth and the visionary behind the event.

Tens of thousands of people from some 40 countries attended the first-ever global simulcast for a church-based creation care event. The townhall-style conversation about creation care was broadcast online from Northland Church.

“This is a historic event. A conversation of global consequences and what I believe can be the tipping point for the church to take the lead that says today we stop the generational sin of pollution,” said Hunter. “Today we stop making the future generation sick because we have misused the great gift of God’s creation.”

During the event, Sleeth fielded questions sent in by people watching online and those in the audience at Northland Church.

He told those who wonder why creation care is important to being a follower of Jesus that the first job assignment God gave humans was to care for the Earth. Sleeth also gave a 90-second sermon on trees in which he highlighted that in the Bible trees usually symbolize God, such as the tree of life, the burning bush, and the vine. And he noted that Jesus’ father was a carpenter and worked with trees, Jesus died on a tree, and Mary mistakes Jesus as a gardener.

Sleeth stated that trees appear more in the Bible than any other living thing except humans.

“As followers of Christ we can’t go out into the world and make disciples while simultaneously destroying the water and air and creatures that God loves,” Sleeth said. “If we don’t respect the world around us we are missing a major part that God commanded us to do. Simply put the Great Commission is a green Commission. It is time for the church to take a leadership role in what God tells us to do.”

Sleeth left his job as a director of an emergency room after realizing that the biggest problem the world is facing today is that the world is dying. Around the time he realized this problem he also became a Christian.

The ER doctor-turned-creation-care minister encourages Christians to make simple lifestyle changes that include recycling, using energy efficient light bulbs, and purchasing sustainable products.

“We are a country of churches and together tonight we are gathered with a church (simulcast) that extends around the planet,” said Sleeth. “It’s my prayer, and it has been my fervent prayer, that tonight would be a beginning of our church working together in the United States and around the world in understanding the influence, power and responsibility we have to be part of this conversation and part of the solution.”

Hunter shared that in an effort to be better stewards of the earth his church has carried out waste, water and energy audits in order to set benchmarks to measure against. Though not mentioned, Northland also hosted the first-ever Creation Care Conference (C3) in 2008 and participated in a “green day of recycling” in January 2009. During the green day of recycling, congregants brought old items to the church where they were donated to charity or properly recycled.

“This (creation care) should be our subject,” Hunter said emphatically. “But people are all freaked out when you start talking about the environment. You got to defuse the whole thing and put it back in a biblical context. This is a matter of obedience.”

Blessed Earth, as described by the Sleeths, is an educational non-profit that helps churches and schools learn what the Bible says about caring for the Earth. The ministry serves as a “bridge” between those who love the Creator but do not know about creation care and those that love creation but do not know the Creator.

Michelle A. Vu Christian Post Reporter

FIND THIS ARTICLE AT: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100422/pastorgod-communicates-through-word-and-nature/